Optical control of atom-ion collisions using a Rydberg state

Abstract

We present a method to control collisions between ultracold neutral atoms in the electronic ground state and trapped ions. During the collision, the neutral atom is resonantly excited by a laser to a low-field-seeking Rydberg state, which is repelled by the ion. As the atom is reflected from the ion, it is de-excited back into its electronic ground level. The efficiency of shielding is analyzed as a function of laser frequency and power, initial atom-ion collision energy, and collision angle. The suitability of several Rydberg levels of Na and Rb for shielding is discussed. Useful applications of shielding include the suppression of unwanted chemical reactions between atoms and ions, a prerequisite for controlled atom-ion interactions.

arXiv comment12 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (13)

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Cited by in corpus (12)

• Cold hybrid ion-atom systems
• Long-range Rydberg-atom-ion molecules of Rb and Cs
• Cold trapped molecular ions and hybrid platforms for ions and neutral particles
• Observation of Interactions between Trapped Ions and Ultracold Rydberg Atoms
• Long-range atom-ion Rydberg molecule: A novel molecular binding mechanism
• Quantum-limited thermometry of a Fermi gas with a charged spin particle
• Trapped Rydberg ions: a new platform for quantum information processing
• Non-adiabatic decay of Rydberg-atom-ion molecules
• Ultracold ion-atom experiments: cooling, chemistry, and quantum effects
• Electric field analysis in a cold-ion source using Stark spectroscopy of Rydberg atoms
• $In$ $situ$ observation of non-polar to strongly polar atom-ion collision dynamics
• Non-resonant inter-species interaction and its effect on the position response function of cold atoms